Steve_

Ontario woman arrested, jailed in U.S. for driving with a Canadian licence | CBC News

This strikes me as one of those annoying: "the law doesn't apply to me" type situations, as it says in the article:

So I had a quick look at the law in Tennessee and it's quite odd in that it requires people to obtain a licence there if they register a car there (with certain exceptions) and if you drive there routinely they have a "wheel tax" which basically forces you to register your car there or get a wheel tax sticker. So either her car was registered there, or it should have been and she was breaking that law.

So cop pulls over a car probably registered in TN, driver says she lives in TN and pulls out a foreign licence with no supporting documents (required under Georgia law)... and she's wondering why she got arrested.

That's got f all to do with it, you're not a snowbird, you're a student who resides in Tennessee. And the cop clearly did know the law. Waaaaah.

Why this is on TV and I'm supposed to have sympathy for someone caught doing 87 in a 70mph zone, I'm not sure.

scrubbedexpat091

Not sure if its a law or now to have the passport on you in GA. The driver services website says if available not required.

​"Non-US citizens holding a valid foreign driver’s license are allowed to drive in the state of Georgia for tourism or business purposes. In the case of a driver license issued by the driver's licensing authority of a foreign country, a law officer may consult such person's passport or visa to verify the validity of such license, if available.​​​​​​"

anyhow 3 days after the arrest prosecutors dropped the charges and before it made the media.

Not sure the cop wad completely in the right here.

A ticket would be reasonable for speeding 17 over not an arrest.

Steve_

State law.

It uses the words "to verify the validity" so by definition she couldn't verify it.

She claimed to reside in Tennessee. Not clear where her car was registered but if she was following the law (which she claims to be doing) then it should have been registered in Tennessee as well so there is every indication to the officer that the person should have a TN licence, not a foreign one and she can't even demonstrate that she's Canadian.

Arresting her and letting a magistrate sort it out doesn't seem particularly newsworthy to me. If you were driving in BC in a BC registered car and said to the officer you live in BC and pulled out a California licence, would you be surprised if you got arrested for driving without a valid licence and would you expect it to be on the evening news in California? (Probably not a good example given that it's illegal to park your car with the window open in BC).

bats

scrubbedexpat091

Also uses the words "if available" in regards to verifying DL with passport.

To me that does not equal required.


First offense for driving without a license in BC is a ticket and car impounded from what I can find.

caretaker

Our nickname for a cop like that here is Jane Wayne. She screwed up and now she's a star.

dbd33

Is that hyperbole or an actual law?

Steve_

No we had a whole thread on it that you've obviously forgotten, some guy in Victoria parked his car with the window open and came back to a ticket so I looked up the BC law from 1996 that makes it an offence. Apparently it was intended to make car theft more difficult.

Since then there's been this whole big deal about people leaving children in cars with the windows closed, so I saw one story where a woman in Burnaby I think it was got some lecture from a cop after she had left her two kids in her Lexus SUV on a cloudy day when it was 20 degrees - but she had left the sunroof open. Apparently some crowd of busybodies had surrounded her car and called 911. I think my response would have been "f off, it's illegal to leave the windows open" but of course that also became some stupid story on the evening news about what an awful mother she was. I think my mother would be serving a life sentence given how many times she left me locked in the car with the windows closed.

dbd33

Grew up with a car, did you? Always the privileged have to complain about something.

Steve_

But if not available, she can't verify it, so all the rest of the information indicated the person lived in Tennessee. That seems like a logical conclusion - because in fact she does reside in Tennessee, she doesn't dispute that. So if you say you live in TN and you have an Ontario licence, you're breaking the law, verification or not. State law requires you to get a licence if you live there.

So you're not going to be driving away from it. There were multiple offences involved so I find it unsurprising she was arrested.

Steve_

And she was so irresponsible she didn't use a car seat and I didn't wear a seat belt either. How did I survive, I often wonder.

scilly

Driving in BC when not carrying a valid license ........ you have 24 hours to present yourself at a police station with the valid license.

Driving without a valid license is as Jsmith says .............. ticket and car immediately impounded.

Visitors can drive for up to 6 months on a valid driving license from elsewhere.

Students can drive for longer than 6 months IF registered full-time at a registered institution, but may need to get a permit. If stopped by police they have to show a valid Student ID card from the registered institution.

The latter is probably why we had a car regularly parked on a street near us for the whole of the last school year bearing Texas license plates. It has BC plates this year